Economic development in Thayer County takes center stage at TCEDA annual event

HEBRON - Not many small counties in Nebraska have their own economic development organization to help steer the county's financial ship. Thayer County does, and to celebrate local economic successes over the last year, a few hundred people headed to Hebron's Statsny Center Thursday night for the Thayer County Economic Development Alliance's annual meeting and banquet.

"We just try to create the right environment for economic development in Thayer County. We don’t always close every deal, and it’s not always our deals that go through, but we create a good environment for economic development," said Pat Kenner, TCEDA's board president and the treasurer of the Hebron Community Fund. "We want to use those resources that we already have. We’ve got infrastructure, water, sewer, power in these communities, and rather than try to buy up farmland around other communities, why not utilize what we already have there? It gets kids in our schools, and helps all of our communities to have a better population. And that’s what TCEDA is doing." 

The attendees' task for the night: fill out a personal bulletin board highlighting the county's successes and challenges. That's a concept sparked by keynote speaker Cory Hepola, who left his dream job as a TV news anchor in Minneapolis to tell positive stories about small towns across America, like the one he grew up in in Minnesota.

"You have what everyone is searching for. Start with that. These national outlets, they aggregate all these things – economy, safety, all these things. Every single year, Nebraska’s in the top five. That’s a major thing to hang your hat on. But the outside world doesn’t think of it that way. We’ve got to lean into that," Hepola said in his address. "So we start with what’s on your bulletin board, what we can do every day, it’s very simple: eliminate the limited language. We can’t talk about our community and our businesses with limited language, meaning, ‘well, if only we had done this,’ or, ‘back in the day if we’d only done that project...’ Eliminate it. None of that matters anymore. We need to be speaking positively about our community."

One of the centerpieces of the event is the celebration of a successful local enterprise. The winner of this year's Thriving in Thayer County Award was Plains Tree Farm and DPM Inc, a combination tree nursery and manufacturing operation that has planted roots in Davenport since the 1970s.

"It’s always nice to be honored by your peers. We are part of Thayer County and try to be involved as much as we can. I’m on the Davenport Village Board, the Davenport Foundation Board, and the Bruning-Davenport School Board," said Aaron Oltmans, the vice president of both businesses, extending an operation first started by his stepfather. "We’re going to continue to grow, as part of that we’re hopefully going to employ more people, and build the business out."

With folks from all across the county on hand in Hebron, an event like this serves as a reminder that when it comes to economic development, collaboration is key.

"TCEDA is huge for us. The towns in Thayer County cannot survive by themselves. It’s not Deshler versus Hebron versus Byron, we don’t need to look at them individually. We need to look at ourselves as one community, as Thayer County, and we will survive," said Kristi Zucker, a member of the Deshler Community Fund board who has helped to orchestrate the county-wide fundraiser for the last few years. "Economic development has been huge in helping bring daycare, and housing. They look at the things the communities might need, and the businesses might need, that they can bring in and help us continue to grow as a county."